The Surreal Universe of Salvador Dalí

The text below is the excerpt of the book Salvador Dalí (ISBN: 9781644618448), written by Victoria Charles, published by Parkstone International.

Salvador Dalí was a Spanish Surrealist artist known for his eccentricity and innovative contributions to the art world. Born in Figueres, Spain, in 1904, Dalí displayed remarkable artistic talent from an early age. He became renowned for his surreal paintings, characterized by dreamlike imagery, melting clocks, and fantastical landscapes. His most famous works include “The Persistence of Memory,” “Swans Reflecting Elephants,” and “The Sacrament of the Last Supper.” Dalí’s artistic style challenged traditional norms, blending realism with surrealism to create visually striking and thought-provoking compositions. Beyond painting, he explored sculpture, film, and other mediums, leaving an enduring legacy that continues to influence contemporary art. Dalí’s eccentric personality and flamboyant lifestyle further contributed to his iconic status in the art world. He passed away in 1989, but his distinctive artistic vision and unique approach to creativity remain celebrated and studied worldwide.

Dalí’s memories appear to begin – or so Dalí informs us in his autobiography – two months before his birth on May 11th, 1904. Recalling this period, he describes the “intra-uterine paradise” defined by “colours of Hell, that are red, orange, yellow and bluish, the colour of flames, of fire; above all it was warm, still, soft, symmetrical, doubled and sticky.”

His most striking memory of birth, of his expulsion from paradise into the bright, cold world, consists of two eggs in the form of mirrors floating in mid-air, the whites of which are phosphorising: “These eggs of fire finally merged together with a very soft amorphous white paste; it appeared to be drawn out in all directions, its extreme elasticity which molded itself to all forms appeared to grow along with my growing desire to see it ground down, folded, rolled-up and pressed out in the most different directions. This appeared to me to be the pinnacle of all delight, and I would have gladly have had it so always! Technical objects were to become my biggest enemy later on, and as for watches, they had to be soft or not at all.”

Dalí’s life is overshadowed by the death of his brother. On August 1st, 1903, the first-born child of the family, scarcely two years old, died from gastroenteritis. Dalí himself claimed that his brother had already reached the age of seven and became ill with meningitis. In preparation for an exhibition on Dalí’s formative years, in London in 1994, Ian Gibson examined the dead brother’s birth and death certificates and determined that the painter’s statement was incorrect. Gibson also pointed out that Dalí’s accusation – that his parents had given him the name of his dead brother – was only partly true. In addition to being given the first forename of the father, both were also given two second names. The first-born was baptised Salvador Galo Anselmo, and the second, Salvador Felipe Jacinto.

Regardless, the child Salvador sees himself as nothing more than a substitute for the dead brother:

“Throughout the whole of my childhood and youth I lived with the perception that I was a part of my dead brother. That is, in my body and my soul, I carried the clinging carcass of this dead brother because my parents were constantly speaking about the other Salvador.”

Out of fear that the second-born child could also sicken and die, Salvador was particularly coseted and spoiled. He was surrounded by a cocoon of female attention, not just spun by his mother Felipa Doménech Ferrés, but also later by his grandmother Maria Ana Ferrés and his aunt Catalina, who moved into Dalí’s family home in 1910. Dalí reported that his mother continually admonished him to wear a scarf when he went outdoors. If he got sick, he enjoyed being allowed to remain in bed:

“How I loved it, having angina! I impatiently awaited the next relapse – what a paradise these convalescences! Llucia, my old nanny, came and kept me company every afternoon, and my grandmother came and sat close to the window to do her knitting.”

Dalí’s sister Ana Maria, four years younger, writes in her book, Salvador Dalí visto por su hermana (Salvador Dalí, seen through the eyes of his sister), that their mother only rarely let Salvador out of her sight and frequently kept watch at his bedside at night, for when he suddenly awoke, startled out of sleep, to find himself alone, he would start a terrible fuss.

Salvador enjoyed the company of the women and especially that of the eldest, his grandmother and Lucia. He had very little contact with children of his own age. He often played alone. He would disguise himself as a king and observed himself in the mirror:

“With my crown, a cape thrown over my shoulders, and otherwise completely naked. Then I pressed my genitals back between my thighs, in order to look as much like a girl as possible. Even then I admired three things: weakness, age and luxury.”

See more on Dalí’s artworks below:

The Museum of Modern Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Philadelphia Museum of Art

The Art Institute of Chicago

Tate, UK

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